Building 2 Computers for friends wanting opinion

[the_flying_scotsman]

Hi, I have been asked to find and build a couple of computers for some friends, the computers are going to have multiple uses but mainly gaming and media.

I live in NZ so i am slightly limited to the parts available to me.

First Computer
Case Antec Twelve Hundred Case
PSU Silverstone Decathlon DA1200 1200W ATX 12V Power Supply Reta
Motherboard DFI LANPARTY UT X48-T2R
Ram G.SKILL 8GB kit (2GB x 4) DDR2-1100 (PC-8800) CL5
CPU Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2GHz 12Mb 1.6GHz
Video Cards Sapphire HD4870 X2 PCIE Video Card, 2GB DDR5
Bluray Drive LG GGW-H20L Super Multi Blu-ray DVD writer and HD DVDROM Drive Black Color
HDD1 Western Digital 36GB RAPTOR 10000rpm 8MB SATA150
HDD2 640GB Western Digital WD6400AAKS SATA2 7200rpm 16Mb

Second Computer
Case Antec Nine Hundred ATX Ultimate Gaming Case
PSU Thermaltake 600W Toughpower
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4 Intel X38 ATX Motherboard
Ram Desktop 2GB DDR2-800 PC6400 Ram $54
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66GHz Socket 775 1.06GHz
Video Cards ATI Radeon HD3870 X2 1GB GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI TV-out oem
Bluray Drive LG GGW-H20L Super Multi Blu-ray DVD writer and HD DVDROM Drive Black Color
HDD1 Western Digital 36GB RAPTOR 10000rpm 8MB SATA150
HDD2 640GB Western Digital WD6400AAKS SATA2 7200rpm 16Mb

Both will be using Dell UltraSharp 3008WFP 30" Widescreen Flat Panel monitor as the extra inputs are required.

Both Operating Systems will be dual boot XP 64bit and Vista 64bit.

Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated,

Cheers

 

[farlex85]

Whoa, that first build is crazy, 9770? It's unnecessary and a waste, but hell if they want it give it to em I guess. Play a bit w/ it first. The Raptors on each are not needed. In most everything that WD 640gb will be just as fast or faster than that particular model of raptor. Go for at least a Raptor X (150gb) or VelociRaptor (300gb) for that. I would really probably just add a second SE16 to both for Raid 0. Super nice builds though man.

 

[the_flying_scotsman]

Cheers, the 9770 may change to Q9550 as a temp till the nehalm come down in price a bit.
Forgot to mention the raptors are there just for the operating systems. (maybe adding linux to the first one)

Any ideas on cooling solutions would also be great

 

[farlex85]

Cheers, the 9770 may change to Q9550 as a temp till the nehalm come down in price a bit.
Forgot to mention the raptors are there just for the operating systems. (maybe adding linux to the first one)

Any ideas on cooling solutions would also be great

Yeah the 9550 would certainly make more sense. I'd definitely consider water at least on the first one, maybe even phase since it appears money isn't really an object. I couldn't tell you much in the way of detail there, I'm sure some others will.

 

[the_flying_scotsman]

Cheers again,

I was thinking phase but have not really had any experience in it.

Has anyone had any experience with the Boreas TEC Cooling System, (the one that does NOT come preinstalled in the case) as im not sure about being able to fit it in the 1200 case

 

[Scrizz]

I'd say go with air cooling(less maintenance) unless they know what they're getting themselves into.